Our Story

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The East Texas Band Cherokee Nation traces its homeland to the Cherokee homelands of North Carolina. Our history is rooted in the lives of our ancestors, their families, their leadership, and their determination to remain free while holding on to the old ways.

In the early 1800s, as Cherokee people were being forcibly removed from their homelands, Chief Duwali Bowles led a group of about sixty warriors and their families westward. Rather than surrender to reservation life, Chief Duwali Bowles chose a path of independence. He wanted his people to remain free, stay together, and continue the traditions and way of life passed down through Cherokee families and leaders.

Chief Duwali Bowles and his people migrated to a place between Shoal Creek and Petit Jean Creek, on the south side of the Arkansas River. While many Cherokee people were removed to Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma, Chief Bowles’s followers continued west and south, carrying their identity, kinship, and traditions with them.

The Horton family, of English ancestry, also became part of this history through a long relationship with the Cherokee people dating back to the 1700s. Over time, members of the Horton family married Cherokee women, creating family ties that connected English and Cherokee communities. Some Horton-Cherokee families moved into Arkansas, while others went into Louisiana. By the early 1800s, these related families had made their way into East Texas, where their histories became part of the story of the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation.

This history is shared to educate the public and honor the memory of the ancestors who carried the people forward. The story of the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation is a story of homeland, migration, family, survival, and the continuing effort to preserve Cherokee identity for future generations.

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The Promised Land

Texas was chosen because, at that time, it was not yet part of the United States. For Chief Duwali Bowles and his people, Texas represented the possibility of living beyond the reach of forced removal and reservation life.

Sam Houston, who later became President of the Republic of Texas, had a long friendship with the Cherokee people. In his youth, he lived among the Cherokee and was adopted into the tribe by Chief Oolooteka. He was given the Cherokee name Colonneh, meaning “the Raven.” Because of this relationship, Chief Duwali Bowles and his people believed that Texas offered not only distance from the United States, but also the opportunity of friendship and understanding.

During the Texas Revolution, as Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna marched toward the Alamo in San Antonio, Sam Houston signed a treaty with the Cherokee Nation and twelve associated tribes on February 22, 1836. These associated tribes included the Shawnee, Delaware, Quapaw, Kickapoo, Biloxi, Ioni, Alabama, Coushatta, Caddo of the Neches, Tahocullake, and Untanguous people. The treaty promised approximately 1.5 million acres of land in East Texas to the Cherokee Nation and its associated tribes.One of the conditions of the treaty was for the tribes to remain neutral and not join Mexico against the Texans in the Texas Revolution.

The treaty signing took place at Bowles Village. Chief Duwali Bowles and Chief Big Mush signed on behalf of the Cherokee and associated tribes, while representatives of the associated tribes served as witnesses. At the signing, Sam Houston presented Chief Bowles with gifts of goodwill: a silk vest and sash, along with Houston’s military sword. These items symbolized friendship, respect, and the promises made between Houston and the Cherokee leadership.

Alexander “Sandy” Horton, aide-de-camp to Sam Houston and Land Commissioner at the time, was also a signer of the treaty. Because he was trusted by both the Cherokee and Sam Houston. Horton was commissioned to survey the land promised in the treaty, with the assistance of Cherokee warriors. His role connected the Horton family directly to the treaty history and to the East Texas homeland of the Cherokee people.

To them, this land offered more than a new place to settle. It offered hope that they could remain free, keep their families together, and continue the old ways passed down by their ancestors. In East Texas, they sought a home where Cherokee identity, kinship, and traditions could continue without surrender.

As the people moved into East Texas, they carried with them the memory of their homelands, the strength of their families, and the leadership of those who chose freedom over removal. This journey became a defining part of the history of the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation.

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Promise Broken

Although the treaty represented a promise of peace and a permanent homeland, that promise was not honored. After the Texas Revolution, the Republic of Texas failed to ratify the treaty and rejected the land rights that had been promised to the Cherokee Nation and the associated tribes.

For Chief Duwali Bowles and his people, the refusal to honor the treaty was a deep betrayal. The land that had been promised as a place of safety and freedom became uncertain once again, and Cherokee families who had worked to build a life in East Texas faced renewed pressure to leave.

When Mirabeau B. Lamar became President of the Republic of Texas, the policy toward the Cherokee changed sharply. Lamar rejected the path of peace that Sam Houston had supported and ordered Chief Bowles and his people to leave Texas. Chief Bowles refused to abandon the homeland that had been promised to his people.

Three years after the treaty was signed, Sam Houston was no longer in office. Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar had become the next President of the Republic of Texas and refused to honor the agreement made with the Cherokee. Lamar gave the Cherokee an ultimatum: remove themselves from Texas or go to war. Chief Duwali Bowles and Chief Big Mush chose to resist.

On July 16, 1839, Chief Duwali Bowles was killed in battle at eighty-three years old, and Chief Big Mush was also killed in the same battle. Chief Bowles was wearing the silk vest and sash given to him by Sam Houston and carried Houston’s military sword. Wounded on the battlefield, Chief Bowles sat facing the soldiers before Captain Bob Smith of the Texas Rangers fired the final shot into his head. Captain Smith then removed Sam Houston’s sword from Chief Bowles’s body.

The sword was later donated to Clinton Masonic Lodge No. 23 A.F. and A.M. of Henderson, Texas. It was eventually presented to Judge Will H. Barker, speaker of the lower house of the Cherokee legislative council in Oklahoma. From the perspective of the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation, the sword should not have been sent to Oklahoma, because those recipients did not participate in the battle and had no ties to the tribe in Texas. The sword belonged to the history of Chief Duwali Bowles, his people, and the East Texas homeland they fought to defend.

The broken treaty marked a turning point in the history of the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation. What had begun as a promise of peace became a struggle to defend homeland, family, and the right to remain free.

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The Re-Birth of a Nation

The Battle of the Neches did not end the people of the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation. It scattered families, broke communities apart, and forced many to survive in silence, but it did not erase who they were. The people carried their history forward through family lines, memory, names, and the stories passed from one generation to the next.

After the battle, our people returned to their homesteads and remained in the area. Only a few left East Texas. Those who stayed lived quietly, protected their families, and carried their Cherokee identity through family lines, burial grounds, and community memory.

In the years that followed, the legacy of Chief Duwali Bowles, Chief Big Mush, and the families who stood with them remained alive. Their descendants remembered the broken treaty, the loss of the promised homeland, and the courage of those who refused to surrender their identity. Even when public recognition was denied, the people continued to know who they were.

Notable Descendants and Community Leaders

Among the descendants who carried this history forward was Richard “Dick” Horton, born in 1847 in Louisiana. A twice-great-grandfather in the Horton family line, he founded Zion Hill Holiness Church of God in 1913 across the field from Bethlehem Baptist Church, founded in 1884. Together, these two churches became—and remain—centers of cultural heritage and gathering places for families connected to the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation.

In 1947, Sandy Horton, son of Dick Horton, and named after Alexander “Sandy” Horton, was serving as pastor of Zion Hill Holiness Church of God, when oil was found on church property, as well as on the properties of many Horton family members and related families in the area. The discovery of oil brought new conflict over land, ownership, and mineral rights.

After the oil was found, some of the same family lines connected to those who fought against the Cherokee at the Battle of the Neches became involved in taking the oil and minerals from church and family lands. For the churches and families, this was another chapter in the long struggle over the homeland. For over eighty years, they have fought to reclaim the land and mineral rights that were taken from them.

The re-birth of the nation is found in that survival. It is found in the families who kept the stories, in the descendants who reclaimed the history, and in the continuing effort to teach our family and the public the truth about the East Texas Band Cherokee Nation. What was meant to remove the people instead became part of the foundation for renewal.

Today, this legacy is carried forward with respect for the ancestors and responsibility to future generations. The East Texas Band Cherokee Nation continues to honor those who came before by preserving its history, protecting its identity, and telling the story of a people who endured, survived, and rose again.